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Canada’s Pospisil and American Sock reach men’s doubles final at Wimbledon

Canada's Vasek Pospisil and US player Jack Sock celebrate winning their men's doubles semi-final match against India's Leander Paes and Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek on day 11 of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 4, 2014. Pospisil and Sock won 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. ANDREW COWIE/AFP/Getty Images

LONDON — There is Genie. And there is Milos, although he is now out after Friday’s semi-final loss to Roger Federer.

But they’re not the only ones flying the Canadian flag during the final weekend of Wimbledon.

Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver, who battled back issues for the first half of the season and lost in the first round of the men’s singles, is through to the doubles final with American Jack Sock.

And veteran Daniel Nestor or Toronto and mixed doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic of Serbia, the defending Wimbledon mixed doubles champions, are in the semifinals.

Of all of them, Pospisil’s result is the most surprising. He and Sock, who is just 21, are a first-time pairing that almost didn’t happen.

Sock asked Pospisil to team up with him around the time of the entry deadline. But the Canadian was dealing with the ongoing back issues that have been put to rest for the last two weeks, and he told Sock there was a 60-70 per cent chance that he would have to pull out.

The two are having the time of their lives. “He’s a fun guy and we get along great. That’s one of the reasons we’re playing so well together,” Pospisil said earlier in the week. “It’s incredible, especially here at Wimbledon. It’s arguably the biggest one of them all. Obviously, I’d like to do a better run in singles, but doing it in doubles is pretty awesome, too.”

The pair upset the No. 2 seeds, Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil, in four sets in the quarter-finals and No. 5 seeds Leander Paes of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who won the Australian Open together in 2012 and are the reigning U.S. Open doubles champions, in straight sets in Friday’s semifinal.

Their youthful exuberance, big serving and impressive work at the net were in sharp contrast to the efforts by their opponents, who are 35 and 41 but who generally are the expressive and energetic ones on the court.

Not on this day; they were soundly beaten in every aspect of the game.

Pospisil and Sock will meet one of the best doubles teams in the history of tennis, the American Bryan brothers, in Saturday’s final. It will take place after Bouchard plays Petra Kvitova in the women’s final, and Nestor’s partner Mladenovic and partner Timea Babos play the Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the women’s doubles final.

Nestor and Mladenovic will play their mixed semifinal later in the day. If they win, they’ll play the final on Sunday.

On the juniors side, there were very few Canadians to talk about. At the junior French Open, there was only Montreal’s Francoise Abanda. At Wimbledon, Abanda was joined by Katherine Sebov, a 15-year-old from Woodbridge, Ont., who had to qualify to get into the main draw.

Sebov lost in the first round of singles. Abanda, the No. 7 seed but the class of the girls’ field, lost in the third round to lefty Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, the No. 12 seed.

The only surprise on the fortnight was the quarter-final loss by Nestor and partner Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in the men’s doubles. They were beaten by Stepanek and Paes and, given how listless the team seemed Friday in the match against Pospisil and Sock, it was even more surprising.

Had they won, there would have been a men’s doubles semifinal with Pospisil on one side and Nestor, with whom he plays doubles in Davis Cup and a veteran you’d have to consider a mentor, on the other. Imagine that.

This year’s Wimbledon really was an embarrassment of riches for Canadian tennis.